Three children go to the shop to buy ice-cream and never return home. The year is 1977. Nine-year-old Adrian lives with his gran and his uncle Rory. He loves to draw and he wants a dog. He's afraid of quicksand, shopping centers and self-combustion. But as closely as he watches his suburban world, there is much he cannot understand. He does not, for instance, know why three neighbourhood children might set out to buy ice-cream one summer's day and never be seen again... In this suburb that is no longer safe and innocent, in a broken family of self-absorbed souls, Sonya Hartnett sets the story of a lone little boy - unwanted, unloved and intensely curious - a story as achingly beautiful as it is shattering. As her quiet tale ominously unfolds, we are reminded of how fragile are the threads that hold us secure - and how brave, how precious, is the heart of each child who soldiers on.

Gripping psychological thriller by international award-winning author As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief twenty years, living in an unforgiving town with distant, punitive parents who ensure he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends - his dog, Surrender, and the unruly wild boy, Finnigan, a shadowy doppelganger with whom the meek Gabriel once made a boyhood pact. But when a series of arson attacks grips the town, Gabriel realizes how unpredictable and dangerous Finnigan is. As events begin to spiral violently out of control, it becomes devastatingly clear that only the most extreme measures will rid Gabriel of Finnigan for good.

A moving and epic tale of one family's fortunes in the 1920s Australian outback, winner of the 2002 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. During the long, hungry years of the Great Depression, Harper Flute's family struggles to cope with life on the hot, dusty land. Her younger brother Tin seeks refuge in the contrast of an ancient subterranean world. A world that nurtures, but - as disturbing events in the community reveal - can also kill. A world that is silent, yet absorbs secrets. A world that has the power to change lives for ever.